To my esteemed Dhamma Wheel kalyanamitta whom I love very much,It's been bugging me for years and I just have to ask. Keeping me awake at night pondering and so forth. We all know the eight requisites for monks & nuns, right? The three robes, the alms bowl, the razor, the needle, a belt and the water strainer.

Why aren't nail clippers a requisite? How are you supposed to deal with nails without something to get rid of them as they grow? Just let them break off or let them grow and be creepy creepy nail monk? *shudder* Surely, for the purposes of assuaging the early sangha's legitimacy anxiety, it would have been beneficial to allow the ownership of nail scissors/clippers? Or did people deal with nail growth differently in the time of the Awakened One?

Eternally indebted to whoever answers this question. You will be like the quenching nectar of knowledge to the thirst of my ignorance, and I will never again experience the embarrassing urge to ask every monk I see about the details of their nail-care.

Best wishes,Viriya

I'm not very good at right speech, although I try, so please guide and correct me if necessary so I don't make bad kamma for myself and cause others to be annoyed. (=

Now on that occasion a certain bhikkhu with long nails was going for alms. A certain woman, on seeing him, said to him, 'Come, venerable sir. Engage in sexual intercourse.'"Enough, sister. That isn't allowable.""But, venerable sir, if you don't engage (in sexual intercourse), I'll scratch my limbs now with my own nails and make a fuss: 'I've been wronged by this bhikkhu!'""Do you know (what you're doing) (§), sister?"Then the woman, having scratched her limbs with her own nails, made a fuss: "I've been wronged by this bhikkhu!"People, rushing up, grabbed hold of the bhikkhu. But they saw skin and blood on the woman's nails. On seeing this, (and saying,) "This was done by this woman herself. The bhikkhu is innocent," they let him go.

The nails should be cut even with the flesh — a nail clipper is allowed for this purpose — and may be polished only to the extent of removing dirt and stains.

The heart of the path is SO simple. No need for long explanations. Give up clinging to love and hate, just rest with things as they are. That is all I do in my own practice. Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing. Of course, there are dozens of meditation techniques to develop samadhi and many kinds of vipassana. But it all comes back to this - just let it all be. Step over here where it is cool, out of the battle. - Ajahn Chah